Last year, I photographed an airport birthday! By all means this was the most unique venue where I have attended a celebration. If I had known this was at all a possibility, I would have asked my parents for this every year!
On this occasion, the airport made lots of areas accessible to the event guests. Firstly, we met at a conference room where food, drink and birthday cake were served. While we were there, a representative from the airport gave us a nice presentation on the details of the facility. Afterwards, we started a tour of the airport. As can be seen, the highlight of the tour was viewing planes arriving on the runway from a spot next to the runway! Thanks to Julie and her parents for inviting us to her awesome birthday celebration – it is one to remember!
It has been a while since I have taken a trip that needed a jetplane to get to the destination. This was a good occasion – an out of town wedding! The best part, is that I did not have any work to do for the wedding! It was another trip that did not have a work-related component attached. So, I went into the trip with a more relaxed approach. However, I still wanted to make some good photos. Especially since it is not every day that I get the chance to travel.
For the trip, I planned what gear to take that would let me take a range of photos without weighing me down too much. Paring down the gear list will also let me carry it onto planes without too much fuss. I brought my Fuji X100s which has a 35mm lens, and my iPhone. For the “big” camera, I brought my Nikon D800 with 3 lenses – a 14mm for a wide angle, a 50mm which is a small, normal, lens, and a 105mm macro lens that I could use as a telephoto or portrait lens.
The first plane we boarded was an almost factory-new Embraer 175. From the inside, the modern design was really evident with what seemed like a lot of headroom and legroom for a small regional jet. The first leg of the trip was supposed to be from Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) to Chicago’s O’Hare airport (ORD). The E-175 and the crew provided a smooth flight to Chicago, but Mother Nature had a wrench into the landing plans. Due to the Polar Vortex that brought a lot of cold down from the Arctic, the Great Lakes stayed frozen for much longer than usual. With the warm air starting to arrive it created a lot of fog off the lakes. You can see from this photo, that there is a thick layer of fog closer to the ground. Chicago is usually one of the most beautiful cities to see from the air. With Lake Michigan taking up most of the view, and the tall towers, it is a great view from the plane. Not on this trip! Zooming in, you can just see the top of Willis Tower, the 2nd tallest building in the US.
There are some sad postings for memorials at the NASA website this week. The Apollo 1, Challenger, and the upcoming Columbia anniversaries are all this week. Although I was not around for Apollo, my childhood is framed around the era of the Space Shuttle.
GCB
The interest in space was instilled by my father. He was an architect, which would discuss engineering, design, and accomplishments of the space program. I had models of the shuttle on the back of a Boeing 747 as a background for many photos. I wish I could find one right now. We never made it to a launch in Florida, but we did visit the Kennedy Space Center on family vacations. I still have 2 space shuttle launches on VHS tape in the archive – the NBC coverage of STS-6 when Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and STS-8 the first night launch of the shuttle.
He would explain to me the technical aspects of launching – how the boosters would be used for only part of the launch, then fall back to earth, and how the shuttle would fly with it’s bay doors open, then glide back to earth like a airplane. In a time well-before the internet, he provided me with books, magazines, and all the information I could want on the space program. We went to Dulles airport in 1985 when the Enterprise was delivered prior to display at the Air & Space Museum. It would be almost 20 years until the aircraft would be displayed at the new museum in Chantilly, VA.
NASA Delivery
Last year, the Enterprise was being replaced at the museum by Discovery. It would be flown in just as in 1985 with flyovers giving the public many chances to see it before landing. It was a beautiful morning, and the views were perfect to see this marvelous machine as it retires. This was a personal memorial for my father who gave me an appreciation for the Space Shuttle program and astronauts and engineers that gave us pride in our resourcefulness and imagination. If he was still with us, I’m sure he would have been out there shooting a camera with me.
